Stockman



. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

. GEORGE w. STOGKMAN, ()FINDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, AND JOHN R .DUFF1N, OFDECATUR, ILLINOIS; SAID DUFF N AssI-cNou TO EDWARD L. THoMIAs.

PRESERVING FURS, FEATHEBS, CLOTHING, CARPETS, &C., FROM MOTHS, MILDEW,&c.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 269,134,1iated December12, 1882.

Application filedMay 29,1882. (No model.) v

Toall whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GEORGE \VASHINGTON STUCKMAN and JOHN ROLAND DUFFIN,citizens of the United States,residing respectively at Indianapolis, inthe county of Marion, State of Indiana, and Decatur,'in the county ofMacon, State of Illinois, have discovered certain new and usefulimprovements in preserving furs, feathers, clothing, carpets, woolens,silks, velvets, and other fabrics that are subject to damage from moths,mildew, dampness, folding, and light; and we do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of the invention ordiscovery, which will enable those skilled -in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

Heretofore furs, feathers, velvets, clothing, and other fabrics subjectto damage from moths, mildew, dampness, folding, and light have beenpreserved in various ways and and by several processes, of which wecite, for example, those now in use among the fui'riers of the UnitedStates and France, which are briefly as follows, to wit: To keep fursduring the summer they are thoroughly cleaned and dusted, placed inair-tight boxes, and stored away for a few weeks, and in the case ofdelicate goods for onlya few days, when they are again dusted byheating, for the purpose also of relieving the for from the effects ofheat or sweating, aired, replacedin the hermetically-sealed boxes, andstored again for a few days or weeks, when the process of beatin g andairing is again repeated, and thus until summer ends. Drugs such as tar,camphor, cedar chips, and tobacco are sometimes employed for theprotection of smallquantities and common goods; but these are not onlyunreliable, but damage the goods by their offensive odor, while underthe heating process the goods are worn byfriction, faded by light, anddeadened by heat, and in case of silk fnr-lined articles they areinjured by the creases which result from folding.

There are other inferior processes, such as cedar closets, chests, &c.;but these furnish only partial protection from worms, and provide norelief from the effects of heat.

Moths destroy furs, feathers, and fabrics by eating, light by fading,heat bydeadening and 50 decaying, dampness by rotting anddeveloppreserve during the summer months from damage by moths, worms,vermin,fading, mildew,

and the effects of heat, furs, feathers, clothing, carpets, woolens,silks, velvets, and other fabrics subject to injury from said causes,without detracting from the value ofsaid goods; and to this end ourdiscovery or process consists in the application of cold dry air, in adark storage-room with dead-air-space Walls, to the goods treated. v

To carry our invention or process into effect we construct astorage-room with double walls, leaving a dead-air space between thelayers of the wall, filling said space with charcoal or some similarsubstance, and reduce the temperature of said room by refrigeration to32 to 35 Fahrenheit by means of any convenient refrigerating process ormachinery which will dry the air it cools. Of such machines or processeswe may use the Stockman-Stephens patent. We locate our refrigerator ator near the top of the room to be cooled, and as the air above is cooledit falls through I the lighter and Warmer air to the lower part ofsaidroom, forcing the warm air into the vicinity of the refrigerator,where it is cooled, and in its turn falls through the air below, by thismeans evolving a currentof air, which, as is a well-known fact, carriesall the moisture to the pans or tanksof thefreezing machinery, where itis deposited in the shape of common frost. By these means we obtain acold dry air of any desirable temperature, which may be placed at about38 Fahrenheit to answer the demands of our process. The walls of thestorage-room are blind,or without windows, and the room is thereforedark. By reducing the temperature to 38 Fahrenheit we render itimpossible for moths, worms, or vermin to develop or be active, destroymildew or any of the fungi, and keep fursin alively and healthycondition. By rendering the room dark, or, rather, by excluding thelight, we preserve the color of all goods, and as we keep thetemperature of the entire room down to 38 Fahrenheit or below during thewhole summer, we

may hang or store goods in bulk in any part of said room, and hence weavoid the effects of folding, as boxes are not required.

The results obtained by the use of cold air in a dark storage-room maybe stated as follows, to wit Moths and other vermin are prevented fromdeveloping or acting, goods will not fade,

furs will not become flat or dead, no form of fungi can exist, and theeffects of dampness and heat, of folding and friction, are avoided.

Ve claim no novelty in the form or character of the refrigerator orstorage-room, as any dark room with dead-walls and any refrigeratingprocess which will produce a dry cold temperature will meet the demandsof our process.

Havin g described our process, what we claim,- and desire to secure byLetters Patent, is-

1. 1n the preservation of furs and other goods subject toinjury frommoths, the process of pre- 20 venting damage to such goods from moths bythe use of refrigerated dry air, as described.

2, The process of preserving the life and color of furs and fabrics bymeans of cold dry air in adark storage-room, all substantially as 25described. I

\Vitnesses:

W. O. MEYER, UHAs. LAW.

